“We are calling for a New Script for Mental Health, grounded in human rights, starting with the fundamental right to life and safety.”

On Friday 1st August, New Script for Mental Health activists launched their campaign video ‘No More Ticking Boxes’. The music video for the song ‘Ticking Boxes’ was created by families with first-hand experience of the harm caused by tick-box approaches within mental health services. Written in response to the experience of bereaved mother, Mary Gould, the powerful song is a collective call for accountability and a rights-based approach to mental health care.

“This song is an expression of anger”, said activist Maria Perkins who MCed the event:

“It’s anger at the harm the current mental health system is causing to people and their families”.

A live performance of ‘Ticking Boxes’ was accompanied by words from activists and healthcare professionals and performances from acclaimed singer-songwriter Damien Dempsey. The event sent a powerful message about the systemic failures in mental health care, but also the vital role of human rights, creativity, art, and music in healing and building community.

Internationally respected critical psychiatrist Dr. Pat Bracken also spoke at the event, echoing the call for a new script and pathways to healing.

“New Script is shifting the focus from a medicalised, technical language of diagnosis, medication, and treatment toward the importance of community involvement, human rights, and social issues like housing, employment, and access to creativity. These are the main routes to healing… it’s the non-technical aspects like respect, meaning, and relationships that are really important.”

“Failings in mental health care can involve violations of the most basic human rights of patients. A call for resources is important, but I’ve come to believe that a call for a new script is even more important.”

Bereaved mothers and New Script activists Kirsty Scott and Mary Gould shared personal experiences of loss due to failures within healthcare services and the harm caused by tick-box approaches to mental health care.

Kirsty, who lost her 19-year-old son William in 2013, said:

“Every life lost is not just a personal tragedy — it’s proof the system is failing. The time for silence is over. Accountability, transparency, and urgent reform are a moral obligation. No more ticking boxes.”

Mary, whose 21-year-old son Conall died in 2017 under the care of the Northern Health and Social Care Trust, said:

“When my son was alive, I was calling out for help, and they weren’t listening… There was a lack of communication between inpatient and outpatient services and no communication with family at all. There needs to be accountability, proper investigation, and learning. No more ticking boxes.”

She also spoke to the power of campaigning with New Script:

“Being involved in this campaigning is cathartic if anything else. It feels like you’re doing something for the community, like your joint actions are going to change things… eventually, change will come, and we will keep going until it does.”

The event marked a significant moment in the New Script for Mental Health campaign, as families, activists, artists, and mental health professionals stand together to say to the Minister for Health, Mr. Mike Nesbitt MLA: “No more ticking boxes. No more preventable harm and death. We are calling for a New Script for Mental Health, grounded in people’s human rights, starting with the fundamental right to life and safety.

Former Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Danius Puras, stated his strong support for the New Script campaign and the song’s message, adding:

“The real crisis is not the heavy burden of mental health conditions themselves. The crisis is the heavy burden of obstacles within the mental health system. These obstacles must be removed, and a human-rights-based approach must be fully embraced.”

In October of last year, New Script for Mental Health launched the ‘Give 5’ Framework which outlines a rights-based approach to mental health. The Public Health Agency’s ‘Take 5 Steps to Wellbeing’ initiative focuses on individual actions to improve mental health. Give 5 focuses on actions government and organisations must take to improve our mental health system for everybody. We can’t have one without the other. The Framework has all-party political support and sets out a vision for a different way of thinking about and responding to people’s distress with a strong focus on community, creativity and choice. It is dehumanising when care becomes a series of boxes to be ticked. Precious lives are lost. Give 5 puts people back into the heart of systems, and government and organisations accountable for their actions.

To learn more or get involved, contact Sara Boyce at sara@pprproject.org or 07864074235 or click here to join our mailing list.